For five decades, the town of Muscle Shoals, Ala., has been world-famous for two recording studios that have produced a staggering amount of music.

Greg “Freddy” Camalier’s documentary spirals out from one story, that of FAME Studios founder Rick Hall, who had the hardest of hard-luck childhoods. Hall put together a house band known as the Swampers with a unique sound — “greasy” is what Aretha Franklin calls it, with awe you don’t often hear from Lady Soul. When FAME started out, segregation was still the law, but Hall and the Swampers — white men all — attracted some of the era’s best black recording artists, including Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Cliff and Percy Sledge.

It’s a big story that includes the Swampers breaking away, with some acrimony, to start their own studio, but Camalier keeps the narrative under control, and the talking heads are wonderful. While I’m not sure I know what Bono is doing here, I’d sit through this nearly two-hour film again just to see Keith Richards’ grin when someone claims the Rolling Stones weren’t drinking when they recorded “Wild Horses.”

There is some talk about whether the town’s location on the Tennessee River has mystic power. My father was from the Shoals, and I wouldn’t use “mystic” to describe the place — but the music? It’s spellbinding, and Camalier does it as much justice as he can, short of playing the records one by one.